Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost walks away from the mound after relieving Jake Junis during a spring training game against the Texas Rangers in Surprise, Ariz., on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017. The Royals won, 7-5. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/TNS) less

Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost walks away from the mound after relieving Jake Junis during a spring training game against the Texas Rangers in Surprise, Ariz., on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017. The Royals won, ... more

Photo: John Sleezer, MBR

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Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Andrew Miller throws against the Toronto Blue Jays during the seventh inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Championship Series in Cleveland, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) less

Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Andrew Miller throws against the Toronto Blue Jays during the seventh inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Championship Series in Cleveland, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016. (AP ... more

Photo: Matt Slocum, STF

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Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost watches as bees swarm near the Royals' dugout during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) less

Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost watches as bees swarm near the Royals' dugout during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Surprise, ... more

Photo: Charlie Riedel, STF

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CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 21: Manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals removes starting pitcher Ian Kennedy #31 during the sixth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on September 21, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) less

CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 21: Manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals removes starting pitcher Ian Kennedy #31 during the sixth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on September 21, ... more

Photo: Jason Miller, Contributor

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CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 20: Manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals signals to the bullpen during the seventh inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on September 20, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians defeated the Royals 2-1. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) less

CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 20: Manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals signals to the bullpen during the seventh inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on September 20, 2016 in ... more

SURPRISE, Ariz. - The revolution was televised, and according to Royals manager Ned Yost, it might have been slightly exaggerated.

Last fall, as relief pitcher Andrew Miller carried Cleveland to the brink of a championship, and MLB managers such as the Indians' Terry Francona and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Dave Roberts turned bullpen orthodoxy on its head, a common narrative emerged.

The bullpen revolution was here. What began as a sleek innovation during the 2014 and 2015 postseasons - the Royals using a dominant relief corps to win two straight pennants - had matured into a full-fledged sea change. The closer position never would be the same. Managers were unshackled from convention and free to deploy relievers however they saw fit.

Need your best reliever in a high-leverage situation in the sixth inning? Use him. Feeling emboldened to use your closer for two or three innings? Why not? The freedom and flexibility were intoxicating, the possibilities endless.

"It got a lot of teams thinking about how to use their bullpen," A's manager Bob Melvin said.

And why not? Francona kept going to Miller, his best reliever, in the fifth and sixth innings of playoff games and riding him for as long as he could go. Roberts called upon his All-Star closer, Kenley Jansen, in a tense high-leverage situation in the seventh inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals. Even Cubs manager Joe Maddon adopted the practice at times, using closer Aroldis Chapman for multiple innings in the final stretches of the World Series.

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But a funny thing happened on the way to the revolution. The playoffs ended.

"That's not going to happen during the (regular) season," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Watch and see how long that happens during the season. That's playoff baseball there, man."

The question, one about the effects of last fall on the future of bullpen use, came during a Cactus League media day session at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in February. Yost listened for a moment, then delivered his answer with an expression that could best be described as incredulous. Even after guiding one of baseball's most dominant relief corps, the Royals' skipper remains something of a bullpen traditionalist. He prefers to assign a mostly rigid set of roles and offer comfort and routine to his pitchers. He views the regular season as a marathon, and bullpen decisions must be made with the long game in mind, he says. Inside the sport, he is hardly alone.

As Francona maneuvered through the playoffs, deploying his pitchers like a chess grandmaster, he questioned whether the tactic could work during the grind of the regular season. Maddon, a manager who remains devoted to statistical analysis, joined the choir, stating that the bullpen innovation had been "glamorized a bit."

"This is not fantasy baseball," Maddon said. "These guys are human and have only so many abilities to throw a baseball within a year."

And yet, it was easy to let the imagination run wild, for as long as baseball has evolved, so has the use of bullpens. In the 1950s and 1960s, starting pitchers regularly twirled complete games, leaving the reliever an afterthought. In the 1970s and 1980s, relievers such as Goose Gossage and Dan Quisenberry annually logged more than 100 innings, defining the "fireman" role. But the advent of the "save" as an official statistic in 1969 - and its increasing popularity in the late 1980s, thanks in large part to manager Tony La Russa's usage of Dennis Eckersley in Oakland - re-wrote the book yet again.

Managers began building their bullpens around the closer, a role that was generally limited to one inning and rarely used in non-save situations. The result was an inelastic definition of the position; and when Baltimore manager Buck Showalter failed to use his All-Star closer, Zach Britton, in an 11-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL wild-card game last October, the absurdity of the role was laid bare.

Showalter never used his best reliever because a save situation never presented itself. Yost viewed the managerial decisions during the rest of postseason, in part, as a reaction to that one moment.

"I think a lot of that had to do with Buck Showalter, because he caught so much (stuff) for not using his closer," Yost said. "These guys were going to make sure that their closer got in games. Because they didn't want to take that crap."

The postseason moves opened eyes, but they probably didn't change hearts, Yost said.

Once upon a time, the idea of a one-inning closer also seemed strange. And then the game changed, and the players adjusted. For now, the bullpen revolution still appears in its infant stages, relegated to playoff baseball and a select few managers and organizations who believe they have found a better way.